Yesterday, while relaxing at home, B decided to check her Facebook account on her iPad. She immediately told me that she thought she might have been hacked. To make sure, she went on her laptop. Sure enough, I came and saw that she had been locked out. Not just locked out, though, but locked out due to a virus.

Wait… a virus? Mind you, this was without Facebook having any ability to scan our computer. Also, this was after being locked out on the iPad.

Nice lesson in malware prevention. Of course, we’re both well versed in the "don’t run programs from sources you don’t trust" rule. We also have anti-virus software running all the time on our computer just in case anything slips by our "common sense filter". (Security is all about layers.) Still, we can just click Continue to re-enable the account and scan using our anti-virus of choice, right? After all, the next screen does say "you can also remove them yourself."

I’d click the "We’ll remove them ourselves, please unlock the account" button, but all I see is a "Download and Run McAfee" button.

At this point, I began to wonder just how valid this notice was. I didn’t doubt it was from Facebook, but I began to question whether this was just an isolated incident. So I did what anyone would do: I searched Twitter and Google. On Twitter, I found numerous people who were locked out due to "virus infections."

This was looking very fishy. Especially when a Google search turned up a deal between Facebook and McAfee. Facebook will helpfully "detect" viruses on your computer and offer to clean it for you using McAfee’s software.

I do have one more screenshot, though, from @jason_michael. Apparently, he got back in without running McAfee. You see, his third screen didn’t display a "Run McAfee now" message, but this instead:

Yes, he was able to simply click to certify that he ran anti-virus software and then was able to get back into his account. No forced downloads and no required TOS agreements. So why did he get the optional treatment and we didn’t? My only guess would be that Mac-Windows difference. After all, you can’t require a Mac user to install Windows software. (It’s trivial to detect what operating system you are running. In fact, I use Google Analytics which does – among other things – just that. Hello to the 22.25% of TechyDad visitors who used Macs or iOS devices in the past month!)

In the end, after writing almost this entire post, I got back into B’s Facebook account again by using Internet Explorer instead of Chrome. However, I’m not sure if it was a matter of IE being allowed in where Chrome wasn’t or if the lockout was only for a certain amount of time. Still, the big red warning bar and only presented choice of running McAfee seems very scammy to me.

It looks like I’ve got yet another reason not to use Facebook. And, if Facebook insists on pushing McAfee on its users due to "virus infections" that it "finds", they will give many users a good reason to move away from them and to a different social media platform.

I did not get the other options yesterday..just the one to check using McAfee…had no choice other than to do the install to access my F/B account.
After several unsuccessful attempts at installing the McAfee garbage, it finally took, and told me there was no virus’s .

I attempted to do a system restore to Saturday, and of course , it wouldn’t take……
I did take the software out thru control panel…this is simple fraud and hijacking to sell software. Thank you once again F/B for malicious business practices

The mainstream media (well, probably only Fox News) is too busy reporting on Facebook’s admission that they were hacked, and the fact that they paid no state or federal taxes on their billion dollar profits.

i got the same message on Chrome and went immediately to phone and was required to log in but had no issues browsing. i made 3 later attempts to log in getting the same “infected” message but like any sensible person, my virus checker runs all the time and does a complete scan every day so I ignored it and a few hours later I was able to log in ok.DaveinOlyWA recently posted..I Am Lazy, but So Are You!

Advertisers became more important than the user experience when my dead friend’s account started liking things like Subaru and pizza Hut’s pages from beyond the grave. Absolutely disrespectful, dishonest and dishonest. Advertisers should be steering clear of facebook

I am appalled at facebook’s dishonesty and manipulation of users. I have seen my name, my kids’ names and my son’s picture show up on ads and immediately asked my 2000 or so friends to ‘dislike’ the post when they saw them, citing false advertising and theft of personal pictures as the reason.

@4eak, I never implied that Macs can’t get viruses. I used quotes around the words virus infection in regards to @jason_michael’s tweet because I doubted that Facebook was detecting actual viruses and instead was just pushing McAfee.

I actualy stopped reading this article after I read the tweet that you only use macs how could you have a virus. You sir should not be allowed to preach about anything technical. Using a MAC so you can’t get virus’s are you serious? I am not even going to go into the amount of stupid this statement….nvm. You putting this trash to spread to other idiots that actually believe it is amazing. Other than that ITS FACE BOOK why is anyone shocked?

@Ryan, Perhaps you should read the article better before responding. First of all, I don’t use Macs. That was a tweet by @jason_michael. Personally, I run PCs.

Secondly, I never said Macs don’t get viruses. Of course they can. However, I highly doubted that any virus infection was at fault due to how the lockout struck my wife and the other people who were locked out.

About the only thing I might be guilty of is assuming that FaceBook’s online McAfee scan was Windows-only. However, this was just a theory given the different screens encountered by Jason on his Mac and my wife on Windows. (In fact, Jason’s screen shows a link referencing anti-virus products for Macs.)

I am quite well versed in computer security and would never declare that any platform was immune from viruses.

Macs can get Malware and Virii, and there is Proof Of Concept for both and more. There are Virii out there written for Macs as well as Malware. That being said, the percentage of Virii and Malware out there in the wild / real world is larger for non Mac OSs than Mac OSs.

I also use Android, and PCs, however my business runs Macs exclusively as we are an Image / Video Studio and I have worked with Macs since 1999. It is my business and my personal choice that the Studio runs Macs. I like PCs, and other OSs however my personal preference for UX (User Experience) is Mac OSX and iOS. Your results will vary.